Cartoons — American Style
- Mario Miranda
We exchanged originals but when I asked for one dealing with the current Indian political scene, Herblock apologized that he had not done anything on India or Mrs. Gandhi for quite some time although he did do a number of cartoons on India during the Nehru era. After my third doughnut, I said goodbye to Herbert C. Block - that’s his real name - and left him to the task of selecting cartoons for his next book.
My next stop was fabulous New York, the Mecca of every cartoonist. Most of the cartoonists who operate in this city live in the suburbs - Westport, Yonkers, New Jersey - and converge once a week (on Wednesdays to be precise) on the city to peddle their wares. After a hard morning of visiting magazine offices and syndicates, whether successful or not in their sale, these pen-wielders get together for a rip-roaring meal at a little restaurant, very appropriately called the Pen ‘n’ Pencil, not far from the UN building.
I was extremely happy on that wet Wednesday afternoon in New York to be invited to one of these garrulous get-togethers. Beer and lots of wine, a solid steak and something called “Bombay Curry” were on the menu - all this spiced with a constant flow of homespun humour. And as I was the only Indian around, there was much amiable banter about rope-tricks and the bed of nails, snakes, the Indian war-cry and so forth. Very sad, I told them rather irritably (the wines were going to my head by now) that their concept of today’s India was confined to such outdated corn. Sad, but true; I came to the conclusion that most American cartoonists knew very little about India. But on the other hand, why should they?
Over the weekend my luck was in again. The National Cartoonists’ Society (NCS) was having their annual tamasha at Fred Waring’s Country Club on the Shawnee. Waring, a great cartoon fan and collector (with one of the best collections of originals that I have ever seen - it covers an entire hall), is an ex-bandleader turned millionaire. Every year he invites all the cartoonists that he can collect through the auspices of the National Cartoonists’ Society for an open house picnic at his palatial club. There is a golf tournament and lunch on the lush green lawns during the day and a banquet at night when all the cartoonists present do little skits to liven up the evening. There were lots of familiar names - Hank Ketcham (Dennis the Menace), Johnny Hart (Wizard of Id and B.C.), Al Jaffee (MAD), Jack Tippit and many others. The fun and games went on till the early hours of the morning.
The NCS is the biggest organized cartoonist society of its kind in America and is affiliated to other such cartoon societies that exist all over the world, so there is a constant interchange of talent from one country to another. (Alas, in India there is no such organization). I met some Brazilian cartoonists who were very keen to visit India, in exchange for Indian cartoonists visiting Brazil - but, tristeza, that sort of thing just could not be done in this country, I said in my best Portuguese.
